Empty
by Cinomarsh
Summary: Mrs. Lovett is fed up with Sweeney Todd's cruelty.


**Alrighty, here goes, yet another ST one-shot! Reviews are loved and cherished! I don't own ST, blah blah, all that jazz. Enjoy!**

It was a typical morning on Fleet Street. The sun shone surprisingly brightly through the layer of clouds that constantly covered London. Sweeney Todd was sitting at a table in the pie shop, and Mrs. Lovett was having a conversation with Toby behind the counter.

"Please, Mum?" Toby begged.

"No. I'm sorry, love, but you're just not ready yet!" Mrs. Lovett told the boy, frowning.

"Yes I am, Mum! Just please let me come with you to help bake the pies?"

"No." Toby's eager face fell as he stalked away.

Mrs. Lovett felt a twinge of guilt as she started her first pie crust of the day, but she knew that it had to be done. She couldn't let him learn what was in the pies, not now, not ever.

"You'll have to tell him eventually." Came Mr. Todd's voice. Mrs. Lovett's heart fluttered against her will; he rarely said anything to her in the mornings. But the meaning behind his words made her frown deepen.

"No I don't." She said stubbornly.

"If you don't, he'll go down and figure it out himself. He'll know what you are." He said darkly, staring at the window.

The baker stopped working for a moment and turned to look at Sweeney.

"And what am I?"

Surprisingly, the barber turned to meet her gaze.

"A liar, a criminal, and a monster."

Each word felt like a slap in the face. She looked down, not allowing herself to cry. Was this really what he thought of her?

"That's not true." She said weakly.

"You know it is." He retorted, getting up and walking towards his barber shop.

Mrs. Lovett was crushed. He had spoken with such certainty. He believed that she was a horrible person. She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised, but hearing it from him had just made it so much more real.

Her hands began to shake with a mixture of anger and sadness. This was the last straw, the last time he spoke out with such cruelty. She put down her ingredients and, brushing the flour from her skirt, went up to the barber shop.

Mrs. Lovett threw open the door to find Sweeney polishing one of his friends and staring out the window. She didn't wait for him to turn.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Her voice shook with despair and rage. Sweeney turned to look at her blankly.

"I'd do anything for you. You know that. You've always known that. I gave you back your razors, gave you a place to live and do business, and when you decided that killing people was the best way to reach your goals? I supported you, even finding a way to dispose of the bodies. I have done everything in my power for you, and how do you respond? Do I get even the tiniest glimmer of respect? Of compassion?"

She paused. The barber remained silent.

"What more can I do for you? What else can I do that might earn something from you, anything? Is there something wrong with me?" Desperation crept into her voice.

"What have I done wrong?"

"You didn't do anything wrong." Sweeney said.

"Well then what do I need to do that I'm not already doing?"

Silence. Mrs. Lovett was fighting to keep the tears out of her eyes and her hands shook.

"Do you know why I don't tell Toby?" She asked, her voice lowered and wavering.

"It's because he's innocent and he cares about me. With him, I'm a good person. I matter. He's still young and full of life and he loves me. I know that he's the only good thing I've ever done. I hate lying to him. But everything I've done, I've done for you. And the worst part is that I don't regret any of it. I'd do it all over again. So tell me." The first tear finally fell, leaving a glistening trail down her pale cheek.

"Tell me what I've done to deserve this."

Sweeney hadn't moved the whole time. Now he walked over to the woman and reached out as if to touch her face but seemed to think better of it and pulled back his arm.

"You haven't done anything." He told the baker. "You're just... Not her."

Mrs. Lovett's heart sank. "Her" could be only one person. Lucy.  
She balled up her hands into fists and stared into the barber's deep brown eyes.

"Well that's hardly my fault, is it?" She spat through gritted teeth, and stormed out of the shop.

Downstairs, Mrs. Lovett immediately wiped her eyes and got back to work. She wouldn't let Toby or anyone else see her cry, especially because of Mr. Todd.

As she worked, a cockroach crawled lazily across the counter, but before she could smack it with her rolling pin, she heard the shop door open and saw Mr. Todd walking through it again.

She tried to muster up what was left of her courage to glare at him, but when she met his eyes she saw something other than the usual apathy and lust for vengeance that usually consumed them. She saw, instead, a kind of vulnerability she had only ever encountered in Benjamin Barker, never in Sweeney Todd.

He paused for a moment in front of the counter before speaking.

"I can't feel anything anymore, Nellie." He told her. The baker was initially alarmed at the use of her first name, but said nothing.

"I'm not the man I was. If I met my Lucy now, I could not love her. All I can do is avenge her and the man who could. Because she did not deserve to die." He looked at the floor, lost in a memory, but pulled himself back, meeting the woman's eyes again. His talk of Lucy hurt her, but she liked him looking at her this way.

"Nellie, if I could still feel, I would try my very best to love you. But I can't. Not anymore." He gave her a kiss on the cheek, pulling away to reveal not only vulnerability but sadness in his eyes.

He then left the pie shop, as if another moment like this could kill him.

Mrs. Lovett stood, stunned, unable to respond. She knew she might've just glimpsed the very last part of Benjamin Barker still in Sweeney Todd, and she also knew that he'd never let her see it again.

She sighed, cursing herself for falling in love with something empty.


End file.
